3 in 1 disc ridger: development of an improved implement for sweet potato plant-bed making, fertilizing and mechanical weeding
Anuar Abdullah1, Nurul Afza Karim2, Md. Akhir Hamid3, Shahmihaizan Mat Jusoh4, Mohd Fazly Mail5, Khairul Idzwan Ayub6, Norahshekin Abdul Rahman7, Zawayi Mat8.
Mechanization has been the solution to counter issue such as labour shortage and
low production rate on field in the agricultural sector. Adaptation of mechanization system
could lower the cost of production, improve quality of the product and also reduce the tedious
work of labour. Current manual practice contributes to high labour cost since the job are
labour intensive. Therefore, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute
(MARDI) has developed a complete machinery package for sweet potato production from
land preparation until harvesting. One of the important activities that require an
implementation of machinery aspect is ridge forming. This activity is essential due to the
height of the ridge influencing the yield. As proven in the previous study, the higher the ridge
the more aeration contributed to the higher yield of crops. In this manuscript, the authors
report on the development and evaluation of the disc ridger. This implement is capable to be
used as a bed forming during land preparation. In addition, this implement is also equipped
with granular-based fertilizer applicator, in which two tasks can be performed together, which
are weeding and fertilizing. The recorded field capacity of this machine was 0.29ha/hr for
bed forming and 0.28ha/hr for inter-row weeding and fertilizing. In terms of fertilizer
application performance, the average amount of fertilizer withdrawn for each plant was
7.65g, which are complied to the agronomist recommendation.
Affiliation:
- MARDI Station, Bachok, Malaysia
- MARDI Station, Bachok, Malaysia
- Malaysian Agricultural and Research Development Institute (MARDI), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
- Malaysian Agricultural and Research Development Institute (MARDI), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
- Malaysian Agricultural and Research Development Institute (MARDI), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
- MARDI Station, Bachok, Malaysia
- Malaysian Agricultural and Research Development Institute (MARDI), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
- Malaysian Agricultural and Research Development Institute (MARDI), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
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